Moravian College, Halloween Night 1913
It was Halloween night, 1913, when the campus of Moravian College, now University, experienced the fright of their lives. At 8:45 p.m., Comenius Hall became engulfed in flames. The fire was discovered by Herbert Spaugh, an undergraduate at the time. You can listen to his account of the events by checking out our online edition.
Thankfully, due to the holiday festivities, most students were not on campus. According to an article at the time published by The Comenian a month after the fire, the building burned through the entire night. By the end, all four floors were destroyed.
This was a disaster for Moravian, as the fire spread, all four floors of Comenius were damaged. The effects spaces included the dorm rooms, office spaces, a student lounge, and a gymnasium. The gothic epicenter of the campus was gone. Thankfully, most students were attending a Halloween party in Allentown on the night of the fire, so no lives were lost and no injuries were sustained.
At the time of the fire, the basement of Comenius had a furnace. Knowing this, students would regularly throw trash down the elevator shaft for it to be burned. While the cause of the fire has never been officially determined, it has been theorized, according to Moravian’s archivist, Cory Dieterly, that the fire could have been caused by a student throwing a still-lit cigarette down the elevator shaft. As the inside of the building was mostly constructed with wood, the fire spread at rapid speed.
Miraculously, the library and Borhek Chapel were left untouched by the flames.
The first time I heard this story, it gave me chills. There’s something about that night that keeps my mind turning. An uncontrollable fire somehow extinguishes itself just before reaching a chapel? It seems like something out of a movie.
Was this some kind of divine intervention? Comenius Hall is rumored to be haunted, so was this the work of a paranormal presence?
I’ve decided to look inward and dissect my beliefs to try and explain what happened that fateful night in 1913.
Soul Searching: My Walk with Faith
When I learned that the fire stopped just short of reaching Borhek Chapel, I immediately thought, “That was the work of God.” The story of the fire has made me look inwards at my relationship with organized religion. I have always struggled when it comes to faith. I was raised in a nondenominational Christian household and went to church when my parents were finally able to drag me out of bed on Sunday morning. Despite my reluctance, there have been moments over the years where I found myself enjoying church. I even participated in a retreat with my church’s youth group one year and had a blast! Still, I struggle with formal religion. I believe that there is a higher power out there who is watching over me and my loved ones. I believe that there is an all-knowing and loving God who accepts everyone.
I also believe God created everyone to be exactly who they are meant to be. God created gay people, straight people, trans people, and every other form of life on Earth. I believe God would not intentionally create a life that is destined for an eternity in hell. As a queer woman, I find it difficult to accept what the Bible says about homosexuality. I find it challenging to believe that an omnipotent being such as God would create people, queer people, knowing that he finds the act of homosexuality sinful. I have heard the joke countless times, “It’s Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve,” but it has always struck me as half-assed and flat-out dumb. God created life, and our personalities and identities are crafted in his image. If I’m queer, it’s because he made me that way.
Despite my conflicting feelings, I believe that God works in mysterious ways. One of those mysterious ways just may have been saving Moravian’s chapel and library from being burned down that Halloween night.
Phantom Fascination: My Passion for the Paranormal
I grew up in a very haunted town, so I have always been surrounded by spooky things. Horror, true crime, and the paranormal have been an interest of mine for many years now. I even wrote an article for The Comenian about paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren, during my sophomore year. I believe that death is not the end of a person’s existence. I believe that there is a limited amount of time people have in their physical bodies, but that the soul lives forever. Saying all of this, I was thrilled to hear that Moravian had plenty of its own ghost stories.
The 1913 Halloween fire is just one of many Moravian ghost stories I have heard during my time here. Built in 1892, Comenius Hall is the oldest building on North campus. Any building with that much history is bound to have supernatural occurrences. Jacqueline Clearie ‘19 recounted a paranormal experience she had while attending a night class in Comenius Hall. She described how a pull-down projector screen in the room suddenly flew up into the ceiling on its own, as if someone had angrily yanked the cord. She remembered how terrified she and her classmates felt at the time. Over the years, Moravian students have journeyed down to the basement of Comenius Hall to try and contact the spirits of those who have passed away on the grounds. I have yet to ghost hunt there, but it is something I hope to do before my time at this school comes to a close.
So, I am left with the question, “Was the fire started by a lit cigarette, or by the vengeful spirits that haunt Comenius Hall?” The answer is, I don’t know. Sorry if that seems anticlimactic, but until I ghost hunt for myself, I cannot determine whether or not I believe this fire was started by supernatural forces. I have the opinion that the fire avoided the Borhek Chapel because God intervened. I believe that many spirits call Comenius Hall, along with several other places on both North and South campuses home. It is unknown who the spirits are that haunt these buildings. Are they past Moravian students? Members of the native Lenape Tribe? Perhaps they are merely spirits who are lost in the afterlife and find Comenius’s gothic architecture appealing.
I believe in the paranormal, but I have difficulty believing in the queer-hating God I was told to believe in as a child. Since I believe in the paranormal and the evil powers of the devil, I believe in God. When you believe that something as extreme as the devil exists, you must believe in the opposite of that extreme. This means that if you believe in God, you believe in the devil, and vice versa. I think my issue is that I feel like there is a right and a wrong way to be a Christian. I don’t go to church every Sunday, I don’t read the Bible, and I don’t spend my time spreading the word of God. Does that make me any less of a believer? I’m not sure. I don’t think it should.
If you believe in God, that means you believe in the paranormal. Paranormal does not have to equate to ghosts and demons. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, the word paranormal is defined as something that is impossible to explain by known natural forces or by science. Based on that definition God is paranormal. Whether or not you believe the 1913 fire was stopped by God, is up to you.
